


Escort Mission

by ripplegrin



Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Elves, F/M, Fighting, Troll - Freeform, a dude, crime?, good stuff, throwing swords
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-09
Updated: 2019-01-09
Packaged: 2019-10-07 01:06:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17356055
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ripplegrin/pseuds/ripplegrin
Summary: Meiyo is given the simple job of finding and assassinating a target for Miss Nadezha. Early on, it goes fine but quickly after that, a new annoyance makes their job much much harder.





	Escort Mission

A mission on Ravnica is quite easy compared to other planes. Every inch of every building has a blueprint and with the right disguise, they were easily read in moments. Certain swaths of the plane had little to no authority or presence of the legion. The most irritating thing was that some places, such as this one, went through Golgari territory which meant many things that want to bite you as you run by. The latest person Meiyo’s employer wanted to make part of the Golgari cycle was Bradley Nethine, an annoying thorn who was trying to prevent her from rising in the ranks or attempted to kill her already. The reason matters little when you’re getting enough zinos to buy food for a week. He came here with seven guards and two elite guards, each should be wearing orzhovian armor as well. If greed could kill. Well, it does if you think about it.

The hovel they decided to hide away in was a sewer tunnel around a block away from the employer’s home, which explained the very light flowery scent that showed its face like a rose growing off the blood of soldiers. Two guards walked the perimeter of the ruins that could barely be called a base. A slitherhead could tell where they were since they were golden armored pillars pacing back and forth and dry heaving every few minutes. Thankfully, they only saw each other about once every five minutes. Seems as though Meiyo was incorrect, one was not dry heaving, just normal heaving. Great. Such a distraction makes it easy to walk up behind him, lightly force him to the ground, away from his lunch, and make sure he wasn’t getting up for a while. Well, that was easy.

“Mike?” A voice came from the other guard who was quickly approaching. Within moments, Meiyo threw a dagger from their wrist and lunged onto the poor guard, coating the sewer filth with a bit of blood. They seemed to be incorrect and now irritated.

“Well, I must say I like your work!” A softer more feminine voice came from behind them and Meiyo quickly turned, pinned them against a wall and held a dagger next to their neck. The scent of flowers and a very weak scent of irritation wafted from the hair of the speaker. They clicked their tongue and cursed. 

“Aja…” The words dripped onto the ground like the acidic bile of a insectile predator. Irritated has evolved to anger at this point. Her normal extravagant clothing was replaced with clothing more suited to a widowed shopkeep but even in those rags, one could still easily tell from her presence that she was still a powerful royal. A single gloved finger pushed the dagger down with a bit of a struggle.

“Careful with that, Mei. You could have injured one of the wonders of Ravnica!” An aristocratic laugh came from her, somewhat silenced out of necessity.

“Don’t call me that. The only wonder here is mine as to why you’re here.” They momentarily tightened their grip before releasing and letting her away from the wall.

“Wordplay is new for you. I wanted to watch your work, is that so bad?” She placed her arms on the shoulders of the taller assassin, ensuring they were focused on her.

“You may stay if you pay me extra for protecting your body.” With a harrumph, she broke her touch, wiped her arms on Meiyo’s work wear and shifted her hands behind her back.

“I can protect myself, Mei! Believe me.” The slight glitter of her magic came from her lips and slowly floated its way to the ears of her brand-new guard. It was unknown if it was because of her magic or merely their wish to finish the job as quickly as possible. They nodded, and Aja responded in turn with a triumphant grin that could easily suit a lion about to devour its prey.

The second group of guards became much more annoying for a multitude of reasons. The new assistant was most them, but they finally decided to have a good order. One guard watches the entrance and the other two see them about every minute. Meiyo thought to themself for a few moments before turning back to…. Where did she go.

“Excuse me, mister! I’m lost, could you help?” In the time that Meiyo took to formulate a plan, she had already run ahead and began speaking to a guard. A guard who was surprisingly fine with an attractive woman walking up to a dead end. A second guard came over to view the commotion and the last one was chubbier and slower than his friend. Meiyo pounced on them like a wolf and began to help with any poison removal the poor man needed. The leeches of this sewer were eating well tonight. A scream came from were Aja was. Wonderful. They quickly cleaned off the dagger they used, and will have to replace later this week, and ran back to Aja.

Much to Meiyo’s surprise, she was completely fine. The guards on the other hand were looking quite terrible. One had been impaled with his friend’s spear and the other had a hole where their heart was. Said heart was at Aja’s feet and she was cleaning off her hands of blood.

“I told you I could protect myself. What do you think now, Mei?” Meiyo offered her a small towel, what normally covered their meals but could also double as a blood rag and looked over her work.

“I still dislike that name. Did you kill any on your way here?” The scent of her magic was still over the heartless, both literally and figuratively, guard and Meiyo knew from experience that it took a great deal of strength to do this kind of damage. Her beauty seemed to match her strength. They slowly stood up and realized that Aja was using their cloak as an additional blood rag. With a forceful pull of it, she let go of it.

“I might have. Only the vips are left but I trust you aren’t satisfied yet.” Her magic was still unconsciously coating her words and one of the few things preventing the full effect of hitting them was their severe disdain for having to do a mission with their boss. Without offering any words of response, they crept up the stairs of the ruins to a small warehouse. First up was Meiyo followed by Aja who decided that best course of action was complaining about how the front door would have been easier than sneaking up from the sewers. A patronizing slow clap came from the other side of the building. Bradley.

“Great that you could make it, Aja! I’m happy I could kill both you and your annoying assassin.” He was a human, dressed in the priestly garb of the orzhovian church, flanked by an elven male with shortsword to their sides, looking like a pompous selesyna knight and a massive mound of muscle that smelled of rot. Meiyo’s skin crawled and it took half a second to realize what it was.

“You hired a troll. So, you know of me.” Any wound they could cut would take a second to regenerate it. A massively irritating monster to deal with.

“Of course! The Shifting Blade and his handler. An assassin who kills with one cut, but the body comes back with scars that look like a behemoth used them as a chew toy. Kill them.”

The two guards charged and Meiyo took a step-in front of Aja. Blades clashed against the only dagger that Meiyo could pull out in time. The troll broke the guard, and their dagger, along with most of the floor. Aja took a few steps forward and the troll immediately shifted its focus to her. Meiyo’s eyes could not leave the elf, however, least they’d lose some blood themselves.

The troll broke most of the building’s walls, but each blow barely missed the dainty figure who seemed to be using the troll as a dance partner rather than an opponent. She never gave any blows back, but the stress of missing was slowly breaking its mental fortitude. As strange as it could be, a bard began playing their music on the street outside and the fight began to shift from a one-sided dance to a symphonic production. Each blow was percussion and each precise step and twirl let a small bubble of magic burst until the troll stopped and the dancer came close. Her face seemed more fitting towards an elder dragon playing with their pawns as her hand neared the poor troll’s skull.

The music was irritating, to say the least, to Meiyo. Each clash of weapons halted their thoughts, their flesh constantly tried to shift into a more elven form, insults from both the elf and priest were breaking their focus and Aja, the one who was going to pay them, could be dead any moment. Some swings of the short swords tore away at their clothing and each thrown dagger was deflected by the same blades. As the two fighters broke away from each other, Meiyo finally decided and drew the katana that normally rested at their side.

“Finally,” The elf spoke with a voice that sounded that a slightly out of tune violin that met the hands of a good musician years ago. “I was wondering when you’d get serious.”

The elf switched to a stance that seemed to mimic a praying mantis and jumped towards Meiyo. Each moment seemed like a century and was punctuated by a series of deep breaths. They slowly swung upwards with the sword… and let go with the downswing. As the elf was busy trying to deflect a katana that was haphazardly thrown at them while in midair, Meiyo took a step forward and shoved a throwing knife deep into his stomach. The elf fell and cursed out Meiyo in seven different languages. Meiyo’s response was simple.

“You did your best. I’ll be sure to remember you… your techniques.” Their hand was lightly placed across the small hole that the dagger made, and, with a small push of their hand, it spread across the entirety of the poor warrior’s stomach. No matter how many times they see it, they hated the look of intestines. Their masked visage began to move towards Bradley, who at this point required new pants. His whimpering and bargains fell on deaf ears. One of the elf’s short swords contacted his cheek and a light touch quickly made it appears a horror ate the priest’s poor face. The sound of a troll reducing the property value of the seemed to stop as well. Aja hummed a tune as she stepped up to the now deceased rival.

“I must say, Mei, your work is amazing! A fitting assassin for someone of my caliber.” She wiped the remains of troll brains and skull on the ruined robes in front of her and looked back at her assassin.

“Now, carry me home! I had to walk through those disgusting sewers because of you and I refuse to take another step.” Meiyo sighed and obliged solely because she was right, she didn’t need their protection.


End file.
